


Somewhere

by purplekitte



Category: Dark Imperium - Guy Haley, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 06:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17177687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplekitte/pseuds/purplekitte
Summary: Musing on the theme of Guilliman being angry about how things have gone in the Gathering Storm era.





	Somewhere

‘Somewhere in the Imperium--lots of places, but where this story takes place in specific--the taxes are too high. Perhaps there was a famine and the tithe levels were not adjusted to match what was available. Perhaps there is a crusade being mustered a sector over and the armies must be fed. Perhaps the governor wants a new palace. Rumors are contradictory, but either way it does not matter, not for the people there.

‘One man in particular, let us follow him. A good man. What does that mean? You will see.

‘The taxes are too high, too much is taken, and he cannot afford food. There is not enough food to go around left to be had. Those with money, those with power, they will survive and continue to have money and power. The poor breed like rats, do they not? There will always be more of them in a generation or two.

‘There is no food. “The Emperor protects,” he prays, but whatever “protection” means, no miracle occurs. There is no food.

‘The voices come to him as he watches his children starve until they are too weak to even cry. “It does not have to be this way,” the daemons say, for that is what daemons say. “You could be the one who has power. You could seize what the rich keep for themselves or use to further their own interests very far from you. You could make bread from a stone if you wanted, so no one would be hungry.

‘“Duty says you should die here? If you did your duty better, more efficiently, you would drown your own children now, for they will not live regardless, so better they waste less food in the meantime that could go to the tithes. Yet you shy from this, for you see it is monstrous, unlike all those who see your life as nothing but a blot on a ledger, unlike all those fanatics who would end your life with their own hands and think themselves so noble for shedding a single tear to the waste of it afterwards.

‘“So easy it is to be brave for one moment and die in battle, believing in glory. To believe your life has mattered and your death will. Worse than pain is meaninglessness, and that is all you will ever have. What has the Imperium ever done to earn your loyalty? How has your loyalty ever been repaid? Does your life not have worth to you, if to none other? Could not you use your life to make the galaxy a better place? Will you not live?”

‘The daemon was tempting, but this was a good man, so he banished the voices. He stayed true to the Emperor.

‘And his children starved and died. His wife and siblings and parents died too, those who fought and those who accepted death as their lot, all. And finally he died, alone, unremembered, pointless. But his immortal soul was safe, for all that matters when there is nothing good after death that anyone has ever found. He died quietly, without inconveniencing his betters with his plight, and that is what it means to be a good man in the Imperium.’

Mathieu had shown emotion while Guilliman talked, but not an ounce of pity did he spare for the primarch as he said. As Guilliman had said himself, however much he hated himself for the consequences of his orders was mere vanity compared to the suffering of those he hurt. ‘So what will you do about it?’ He knew a leading story when he heard it. He had seen such events with his own eyes before, besides, time and again.

Guilliman did not smile, which he did rarely, but he did tilt his head in minute acknowledgement that his point had gotten across.


End file.
